The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-03-30
A PECULIAR AFFLICTION.
A CASE THAT NO DOCTOR SEEMS
TO UNDERSTAND.

I but has Peculiar Mental Sensa-
tiOns-Suffering Fifteen Years.
IL wish you would make an inquiry
for me through the columns of the Sum-"
said stout, healthy looking man to a
reporter. The inquirer was about feet
8 inches high, weighed probably 10
pounds, and looked the picture of
] physical and mental comfort.
! "Yes, look healthy enough, said he,
"but the truth is that l have not felt
/ well monent for fifteen years. The
| worst of it is that no doctor seems to
! understand the case. There was an
article in the Sun sometime ago about
strange mental disease, and one of them,
called neurophobia, where the victim
had a horror of going past certain places,
seemed to be the nearest to my case l
/ ever heard of, but it did not fit me ex
! actly. | have tried allopathy, homg
opathy, water cure, mind cure, faith
cure, dieting, recreation, and no doctor
/ ing at all, but the result is always the
same. 1t started with a general break
down from intellectual overwork, with
all its Accomplishments of dyspepsia,
nervous prostration, and the like. But
now sleep well, eat like a pig, have no
/ dyspepsia, and can stand a good deal of
/ mental and physical work, loss Of sleep,
etc., without inconvenience. At the
/ same time am in a continual state of
I torment.
81 will be feeling good for a while,
| when all of a sudden there is sensation
! that something is going to happen. Then
! 1 grow restless, frightened, and finally
| fall into a regular panic, Just as one
| would if he were in front seat in the
atre and somebody should cry fire and the
/ audience start to rush out. This merges
/ into a sort of spasm Of the stomach, ac
/ companied by a dimness OF vision,
| quaking of the knees, complete physical
prostration, trembling, palpitation of
| the heart, deafness, and a complete col
| lapse. The only thing that will stop 1t
| is a tremendous effort of the will to
! throw it off, but in many cases the will
! itself appears to be weak and sick, and
not within my control. Opium, cocaine,
bromide of potassium, valerian, ignatia,
and liquors have been tried for relief.
| The quickest is liquor, the stimulus of
which overcomes temporarily the attack,
but in an hour there is reacting de-
preston that can only be overcome by
! sleep. Opium seems to be a specific also,
| but its action is less rapid, and for fear
of the habit growing do not like to take
that.
Another peculiar phase of the trouble
is monomania against going far away
from home and in certain places, wherein
! it is like the disease called neurophobia
! by the one who wrote up the Sun article
I some time ago. I cannot 90 to New
York without some strong person with
me to take care of me. l never want
any care, but it appears as if l had not
the confidence in my ability to take care
of myself. l cannot walk through the
streets of a city alone on flag stones or
brick pavements. The symptoms are
the same day or night. But, strange to
say, as soon as l reach the country,
III ci'---- there are broad fields and no side
wheef5sti arrarr5.-aye as any one and have
walks. l am as y. In IaSs and have equal
no unpleasant symptomspa- a,'V or night.
self-reliauce and confidence Gapms : to
If l persist, making up my mindNiD,
fight the feeling down, as soon as
l get a few blocks distant from
house or Office, the panics come
on and l seek to fly anywhere,
anywhere out of myself for relief. An
other singular feature of the disease is
that while l cannot 60 away anywhere
alone where l have to walk, | can go on
wheels. If have hack othe cars and
step from the cars to another hack, l
have none of these unpleasant symptoms.
] This feature is of recent origin. For
merly l could not 60 away alone even on
wheels. Riding on the cars IS restful
to my nerves A ride Of fifty miles will
make me quite myself again, but sail
on a steamboat has a contrary effect. One
of the most horrible experiences is to go
/ out in a small boat fishing, for fear of
obeying an impulse to jump overheard.
/ This is not from fear, through unfamll-
iarity, for l was almost brought up in
rowboat.
"The inability to walk around town in
terferes greatly with business, it being
sometimes necessary 10 get hack to 60
a distance of two blocks. On some
} DAYS the nervousness is worse than on
/ others. At times ! am afraid to get into
/ a barber's chair do not know what
am afraid Of. ! cannot fathom it, but
i am terror-stIicken, / am not physically
/ a coward. | could look into the muzZle
| Of cooked pistol without hinching
| (and l have often felt tempted to look
into one with my own finger on the
/ trigger, but l am afraid Of some intan-
/ gible thing or state Of things that can
not describe, because l do not know
what they are.
Il have, as I said before, tried all
sorts Of doctors and all sorts of remedies
/ in vain. have spent a fortune to re-
cover my health, and am still almost
/ where l started. In the course Of my
/ experience l have met several persons
/ somewhat similarly afflicted" "
The sufferer added that he was regu-
/ lar in his habits, did not smoke or chew,
/ used no coffee, ate only plain, substan-
/ tial foods, and only touched liquor as a
/ remedial agent TO relieve the horrible
atta-k.-Ne5c York Sun.